SURRENDER TO THE MARKERS

posted
August 29th, 2013

Stop right there, hands in the air!If you want to know what Magik Markers think is good for you, you’ll Surrender To The Fantasy. For this long-desired alpus, they’ve been working in threes and stuff. The hermetic trifecta of knowledge, Christ and the two thieves, Alvin and the Chipmunks, and the original tagline of the Markers’ symbol: “3 down, no to go.” Meaning, these 3 get it and literally no one else needs to . . .’cept the record-buying public, tra la la, ha ha ha ha. Harlan Howard said country music was three chords and the truth, Colin Harper said Mahavishnu Orchestra was 403 chords and the truth. Here we say Magik Markers are no chords and the truth - but to tell the truth, there are some chords, because just as them Markers never change, they always change, because change is Magik! And if you believe in Magik, then you'll Surrender To The Fantasy.

STTF kicks off with that hoary old trope of punk records, the song about the Chesapeake Valley Runoff and the mating cycle of crabs. After that kind of in-your-face Attenborough-core, where could the record go? Nowhere but everywhere, all the creepy outposts of American detritus from other times, when hitchhiking and h-bombs were still hot, viable new ideas and on beyond zed-bra. Surrender builds monolithically in its penultimate
moment, then blazes out with possibly the best prescription cough medicine solo in the history of Elisa Ambrogio’s storied career. This is a Mainliner-ish ode to the American underbelly that spawned rock and roll heroes and bad life choices — long a topic of fascination and adoration in the MM camp, and it ends the Fantasy by beginning another.

David Crosby asked why can't we go on as three, and Magik Markers answer: we wouldn't have it any other way. The Magik Markers are and will continue to be: Elisa Ambrogio, Pete Nolan, and John Shaw. To each his own chimera, said Baudelaire, and we (and they) concur. Surrender To The Fantasy is out 11/19. But don't forget to make your date with their "Ice Skater" on the singles scene, coming out on their pre-Fantasy tour and then again on the street date of 9/17.